I live in a very small town, and it took a while for our grocery stores to show any signs of shortage, but the last time I went, there were very few canned goods and fresh products like dairy, eggs, and fruit. What there was plenty of, however, was canned spinach. I don't think any soul walking around today has a fervent, Popeye-esque love of this vegetable in canned form, but I likewise think that everyone can recognize the nutritional value of these leafy greens in any form, so if shortages are bad in your area, this recipe will actually make them taste like something.
Since I had some frozen spinach on hand, I used that after thawing it and cooking to dry it as much as possible. In place of the Jell-O I used the juice and zest of two large lemons plus unflavored gelatin. The only other thing I changed was the onion. As I've previously mentioned, I have some home-fermented red onions on hand, so I used some of that, finely minced, in place of grated onion. I left in the salt, the vinegar, and the proportions of the ingredients--everything else, in essence, is the same. If you plan on making this salad, please see my recipe notes at the end of this post for some further tweaking recommendations.
This recipe is a snap to make. The only even vaguely difficult part is checking up on the hardening gelatin enough to catch it at the right stage to fold in the vegetables. Gelatin has an uncanny knack of knowing exactly when I'm in a hurry, because whenever I just want to get everything squared away in a mold and on to my next chore, I swear it takes about three times longer for it to set up. At any rate, the Savory Spinach Salad eventually made five salads in my small individual molds, though this depends highly on exactly how much spinach you use.
I know this is not the prettiest recipe--my husband remarked that it looked like I set moss in gelatin and called it a day. But how does it taste? Well, oddly enough, it tastes nothing like spinach. The rest of the ingredients overpower the spinach element entirely. The main flavor is that of acid, and between the lemon juice and the vinegar, it is most similar to sauerkraut in flavor. It is very acidic, to the point that I recommend toning down the lemon juice to the juice of one large lemon or increasing the amount of water by a half cup and increasing the gelatin to match. Even so, you do still get a good hint of onion flavor as well. The whole package is rather refreshing, though the texture definitely has a bit of that stringy processed cooked spinach sensation. As you're chewing, just remember how much Vitamin C you're getting and pretend it actually is sauerkrat and you'll be alright.
As you can see in the recipe, General Foods recommends serving it over lettuce and garnished with mayonnaise and hard-cooked eggs. While I couldn't get ahold of fresh lettuce, I did have mayo and eggs on hand, so I tried it this way, and it is a definite improvement. Both the mayonnaise and the eggs cut down on the acidity and, of course, provide fat and protein, so the whole package winds up being a very filling snack or a light lunch.
I only had the Savory Spinach Salad on hand for four days, but it held up perfectly through all that time. On the whole, this recipe was not as bad as I was expecting, but it wasn't terrific either. If I had plenty of a mild lettuce, though, I would not feel bad about serving it to company as long as I dialed back the lemon juice or vinegar a little and served it with the eggs and mayonnaise. It's not something you will crave, but I can easily commend General Foods for creating a completely virtuous spinach gelatin salad that isn't terrible.
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